Wisconsin Incident Illustrates Perils Of Open Carry

However, an incident in Madison, Wisconsin demonstrates one of the biggest concerns about open carry you’re likely to hear. No, the individual wasn’t shot first because they were open carrying, but close.

A Black Earth man who was openly carrying multiple firearms on State Street Monday had one of the weapons taken from him during an argument.

Melvin F. Bogus, 39, no permanent address, was arrested for second degree reckless endangerment, theft, possession of firearm by felon, possession of cocaine and bail jumping after grabbing the weapon from the man police say was legally carrying his weapons in the open.

Officers responded about 7:30 p.m. to a report of the suspect pointing a handgun at the victim and made contact with the victim who had been openly carrying multiple firearms.

I’ve had someone send me a link to a site that claimed I was “anti-open carry,” which isn’t true. I think it’s a poor tactical decision, and stuff like this is a part of why, but I don’t actually oppose people doing it.

But I will say that if you’re going to do it, you’d better learn how to retain your weapon. Otherwise, stuff like this can happen.

Yet that’s not exclusive to open carriers, either. Weapon retention is probably one of those tasks that far too many of us neglect. We might watch a few videos, read a few articles, and consider it good enough. “I know what to do,” some of us think, but we don’t practice it that often.

Even concealed carriers may be in a position where they have to try to retain their weapon.

I just think it’s more likely to happen to open carriers.

For the record, and for the sake of balance and so those who get outraged at any criticism of open carry understand I’m not anti-open carry, both open and concealed carry have their challenges. We don’t often hear of open carriers shooting themselves in the groin, for example. Each method has benefits and challenges.

Oddly enough, it looks like this whole dispute had more to do with politics than anything else:

During the argument, the suspect asked, “Why you wanna kill people.” The gunman responded saying he was armed because it was his right, and it was for protection.

That’s when Bogus went for the gun, getting it, only for the law-abiding citizen to direct the long gun he was carrying in return.

It looks like at least one anti-gunner who talks about taking a gun away from a law-abiding citizen exercising their Second Amendment rights actually had the cajones to do it. I’m kind of impressed.

Bogus is just lucky he didn’t get killed for his actions.

If he had, the blood wouldn’t have been on the hands of the citizen who had his gun taken, even if I don’t think open carry is a good idea personally.

No, it rests on the hands of those who preach that guns are for killing people and the only reason to carry firearms is for murder. They preach it, their allies in the media broadcast it, and people buy it.

Then stuff like this happens.

When someone gets killed for doing this, it’s not on us. It’s on them. Plain and simple.